Peter Lombard, Theologian

A Complete Vision of Christian Doctrine

During
his general audience on Dec. 30, Pope Benedict XVI resumed his catechesis on
the Christian culture of the Middle Ages. He spoke about Peter Lombard, an
outstanding theologian, whose best-known work, the Sentences,
became the standard introduction to theology for centuries, influencing the
thought of scholars such as Sts. Albert the Great, Bonaventure and Thomas
Aquinas.

Dear brothers and sisters,

During this last audience of the
year, I would like to speak to you about Peter Lombard, a theologian who lived
during the 12th century and who is especially renowned because one of his
works, the Sentences, was used as a standard text at
schools of theology for many centuries.

Who, then, was Peter Lombard?
Although there is little information about his life, we can reconstruct some
essential facts. He was born between the 11th and the 12th centuries near
Novara in northern Italy, in a land that had belonged to the Lombards for some
time — hence the reason he was given the name of “Lombard.”

He came from a family of modest
means, which we can deduce from the letter of introduction that Bernard of
Clairvaux wrote for him to Gilduin, superior of the Abbey of St. Victor in
Paris, asking him to take in Peter for free, since Peter wished to go to Paris
to pursue his studies.

During the Middle Ages, it was not
merely the nobles or the wealthy who could pursue their studies and aspire to
important roles in the life of society at large or in the life of the Church.
Even people of humble origins could attain such roles, like Gregory VII, the
pope who held his ground in a confrontation with Emperor Henry IV, and Maurice
of Sully, the archbishop of Paris who ordered the construction of the Cathedral
of Notre-Dame and who himself was the son of a poor peasant.

Peter Lombard began his studies in
Bologna, but later went to Reims and then to Paris. From 1140 onwards, he
taught at the prestigious school of Notre Dame.

Respected and appreciated as a
theologian, Pope Eugene III entrusted him eight years later with the task of examining
the teachings of Gilbert Porretano, which had stirred up a great deal of
controversy since they were regarded as not completely orthodox. After he was
ordained a priest, Peter was named bishop of Paris in 1159, just a year before
his death in 1160.

His Masterpiece

Like all teachers of theology of his
time, Peter wrote treatises and commentaries on sacred Scripture. However, his
masterpiece consists of the four books of the Sentences, a text
that was conceived for the purpose of teaching.

According to the theological method
used at the time, students had to be familiar with the teachings of the Fathers
of the Church through study and commentary, as well as the teachings of other
authoritative writers.

Therefore, Peter assembled a vast
documentation, consisting principally of the teachings of the great Latin
Fathers of the Church, especially St. Augustine, but that was also open to the
contribution of contemporary theologians.

He used, among other things, an
encyclopedic work of Greek theology that had only recently acquired renown
throughout the West, The Orthodox Faith by
St. John Damascene.

Peter Lombard’s particular merit was
to have organized all the material that he had carefully gathered and chosen
into a systematic and harmonious framework. In fact, one of the characteristics
of theology is that of organizing the heritage of our faith in a unified and
well-ordered fashion.

Thus, Peter divided his Sentences,
the patristic sources on the various themes, into four volumes.

The first volume was devoted to God
and the mystery of the Trinity; the second to creation, sin and grace; and the
third to the mystery of the Incarnation and the work of redemption, with an
ample discussion of the virtues. The fourth volume was devoted to the
sacraments and the Novissimi: the
ultimate realities, those of eternal life.

The overall vision that emerges
includes almost all the truths of the Catholic faith. This systematic overview
and its clear, well-organized, schematic and consistent presentation explain
the extraordinary success of Peter Lombard’s Sentences. They
allowed a certain security in learning on the part of students and ample room
for deeper analysis by those teachers who used his books.

A Franciscan theologian, Alexander
Hales, who lived a generation after Peter, introduced a subdivision to the Sentences
that facilitated its consultation and study.

Even the greatest theologians of the
13th century, Albert the Great, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Thomas Aquinas,
began their academic careers by commenting on the four books of Peter Lombard’s
Sentences,
enriching them with their reflections. Peter Lombard’s text was used in all the
schools of theology until the 16th century.

A Unified View of Faith

I would like to emphasize the fact
that an organic presentation of the faith is an indispensable requirement.
Indeed, the individual truths of the faith shed light on each other, and an
overall, unified view of these truths makes the harmony of God’s plan for
salvation and the centrality of the mystery of Christ emerge.

I call upon all theologians and
priests to follow Peter Lombard’s example and to always bear in mind the
overall vision of Christian doctrine so as to guard against the modern-day
risks of fragmentation and undervaluation of individual truths.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church
and its Compendium supply us with precisely this complete picture of Christian
revelation, which we should accept with faith and gratitude. Therefore, I would
like to encourage each member of the faithful as well as Christian communities
to draw profit from these instruments in order to gain a deeper knowledge of
the contents of our faith.

The faith will then appear as a
marvelous symphony that speaks to us of God and his love for us, thereby
eliciting our firm allegiance and diligent response.

In order to have an idea of the
interest to readers today of Peter Lombard’s Sentences, I would
like to give two examples. Inspired by St. Augustine’s commentary on the Book
of Genesis, Peter asks why woman was created from Adam’s rib and not from his
head or from his legs. He explains: “What came forth was neither a dominator
nor a slave to man, but rather a companion” (Sentenze 3, 18, 3).

Then, still basing himself on
patristic teaching, he adds: “This act represents the mystery of Christ and the
Church. Indeed, just as woman was formed from Adam’s rib as he slept, so the
Church was born from the sacraments that began to flow from Christ’s side as he
slept on the cross, that is, from blood and water with which we are redeemed from
punishment and purified of sin” (Sentenze, 3, 18,4).

These are profound reflections that
are still valid today, in an era where the theology and spirituality of
Christian marriage have given greater depth to the analogy of the spousal
relationship between Christ and his Church.

In another passage from his
principal work, Peter Lombard, writing about the merits of Christ, asks: “For
what reason, then, did Christ wish to suffer and die, if his virtues were
sufficient to gain him every merit?”

His response is insightful and
effective: “He died for you, not for himself!”

He then continues with another
question and answer, which seem to reproduce the discussions that took place
during the classes of medieval theologians: “In what sense did Christ suffer and
die for me? So that his passion and death could be an example and a cause for
you — an example of virtue and humility, a cause for glory and freedom; an
example given by God, who was obedient unto death, and the cause of your
liberation and your blessedness” (Sentenze 3, 18, 5).

The Sacraments

Among the more important of Peter
Lombard’s contributions to the history of theology, I would like to single out
his treatise on the sacraments, of which he gave a definition that I would call
definitive: “A sacrament properly so called is that which is a sign of God’s
grace and the visible form of invisible grace, in such a way that it carries
its image and is its cause” (Sentenze 4, 1, 4).

With this definition, Peter Lombard
grasped the essence of the sacraments: They are the cause of grace and have the
true capacity to communicate God’s life.

Later theologians never abandoned
this view and utilized the distinction between material and formal elements
introduced by the “Master of the Sentences,” as Peter Lombard was later called.

The material element is visible
sensory reality. The formal element consists of the words spoken by the
minister. Both are essential for a complete and valid celebration of the
sacraments — matter, the reality through which the Lord visibly touches us, and
the word, which gives the spiritual significance.

In baptism, for example, the
material element is the water that is poured over the head of the child and the
formal element is the words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Moreover, Peter Lombard stated clearly that
the sacraments alone objectively transmit God’s grace and that there are seven:
baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, the anointing of the sick, holy
orders and matrimony (see Sentenze 4, 2, 1).

Friendship With Christ

Dear brothers and sisters, it is
important to recognize how precious and how indispensable this sacramental life
is for each Christian, in which the Lord, by means of these material realities,
in the community of the Church, touches and transforms us. As the Catechism of
the Catholic Church says, the sacraments are “powers that come forth from the
body of Christ, which is ever living and life-giving ... actions of the Holy
Spirit” (No. 1116).

During the Year for Priests that we
are celebrating, I exhort the clergy, especially those who minister to souls,
to cultivate first and foremost an intense sacramental life of their own in
order to be able to help the faithful.

The celebration of the sacraments
should be marked by dignity and decorum, promote personal prayer and community
participation and a sense of God’s presence and a missionary zeal. The
sacraments are the great treasure of the Church, and it is up to each one of us
to celebrate them so that they may bring forth spiritual fruit. In them, an
ever new and surprising event touches our lives: Christ, through visible signs,
comes to meet us. He purifies us, transforms us and allows us to participate in
his divine friendship.

Dear friends, we have come to the
end of this year and stand at the door of the new year. My wish is that the
friendship of Our Lord Jesus Christ might accompany you each day of the year
that is about to begin. May this friendship with Christ be our light and guide,
helping us to be men and women of peace — of his peace! Happy New Year to all
of you! Register translation

Comments

Great article! It is very important that we can articulate our faith and say why the Church exists; we don’t need to know everything but we should be able to say the following (which is so beautiful, so I’ll memorise it and repeat it when appropriate): “it is important to recognize how precious and how indispensable this sacramental life is for each Christian, in which the Lord, by means of these material realities, in the community of the Church, touches and transforms us”.

Here is one more (which I’ll put in my French-American blog): “The celebration of the sacraments should be marked by dignity and decorum, promote personal prayer and community participation and a sense of God’s presence and a missionary zeal. The sacraments are the great treasure of the Church, and it is up to each one of us to celebrate them so that they may bring forth spiritual fruit”...
Thank you!

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